Tag : Politics

Acclaimed not only by primatologists for its scientific achievement but also by politicians, business leaders, and social psychologists for its remarkable insights into the most basic human needs and behaviors, this book is considered a classic. De Waal dwells into a detailed and thoroughly engrossing account of rivalries and coalitions-actions governed by intelligence rather than instinct. As we watch the chimpanzees behave in ways we recognize from Machiavelli (and from the nightly news), de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity.

Acclaimed not only by primatologists for its scientific achievement but also by politicians, business leaders, and social psychologists for its remarkable insights into the most basic human needs and behaviors, this book is considered a classic. De Waal dwells into a detailed and thoroughly engrossing account of rivalries and coalitions-actions governed by intelligence rather than instinct. As we watch the chimpanzees behave in ways we recognize from Machiavelli (and from the nightly news), de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity.

Even more enlightening than Machiavelli’s The Prince, this book describes power takeovers and social organizations in a chimpanzee colony and argues that power politics is part of the evolutionary heritage that we share with our closest nonhuman relatives. I’ll never look at academic or corporate politics the same way, and I understand their machinations much better for having read this book. Chimps, unlike humans, do not cloak their political pretenses in rhetoric, so we can see more clearly the process at work and thereby learn much about ourselves.

Despite the heavy rain, the presiding officer at Polling Station 14 finds it odd that by midday on National Election day, only a handful of voters have turned out. Puzzlement swiftly escalates to shock when eventually, after an extension, the final count reveals seventy per cent of the votes are blank - not spoiled, simply blank...The authorities, seized with panic, decamp from the capital and place it under a state of emergency. In his new novel, Jose Saramago has deftly created the politician's ultimate nightmare: disillusionment not with one party, but with all, thereby rendering the entire democratic system useless. Seeing explores how simply this could be achieved and how devastating the results might be.

Despite the heavy rain, the presiding officer at Polling Station 14 finds it odd that by midday on National Election day, only a handful of voters have turned out. Puzzlement swiftly escalates to shock when eventually, after an extension, the final count reveals seventy per cent of the votes are blank - not spoiled, simply blank...The authorities, seized with panic, decamp from the capital and place it under a state of emergency. In his new novel, Jose Saramago has deftly created the politician's ultimate nightmare: disillusionment not with one party, but with all, thereby rendering the entire democratic system useless. Seeing explores how simply this could be achieved and how devastating the results might be.

A sequel to his amazing novel Blindness. Saramago is not easy to read. He punctuates mostly with commas, doesn’t paragraph often, doesn’t set off conversation in quotes; mannerisms I wouldn’t endure in a lesser writer; but Saramago is worth it. More than worth it. Transcendently worth it. Blindness scared me to death when I started it, but it rises wonderfully out of darkness into the light. Seeinggoes the other way and is a very frightening book.

The Great Deformation is a searing look at Washington’s craven response to the recent myriad of financial crises and fiscal cliffs. It counters conventional wisdom with an eighty-year revisionist history of how the American state—especially the Federal Reserve—has fallen prey to the politics of crony capitalism and the ideologies of fiscal stimulus, monetary central planning, and financial bailouts and bond markets. The Great Deformation explains how we got here and why these warped, crony capitalist policies are an epochal threat to free market prosperity and American political democracy.

The Great Deformation is a searing look at Washington’s craven response to the recent myriad of financial crises and fiscal cliffs. It counters conventional wisdom with an eighty-year revisionist history of how the American state—especially the Federal Reserve—has fallen prey to the politics of crony capitalism and the ideologies of fiscal stimulus, monetary central planning, and financial bailouts and bond markets. The Great Deformation explains how we got here and why these warped, crony capitalist policies are an epochal threat to free market prosperity and American political democracy.

The most overlooked book I’ve read. Critics try to marginalize him, but a lot of people are thinking what he has the courage to say. If you want to understand why income inequality is worsening and why boom/bust cycles are getting more and more severe, read his book.

In this celebrated book, Thomas Piketty analyzes data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the 18th-century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and poses Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for long-term economic growth. This is truly a work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigour.

In this celebrated book, Thomas Piketty analyzes data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the 18th-century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and poses Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for long-term economic growth. This is truly a work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigour.

One book I read although I totally disagreed with it is Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” He’s off the deep end, but it’s a worthwhile read because it’s at the pulse of people’s thinking on inequality.

What Jason Furman says

Adds to our empirical understanding, challenges our prevailing assumptions and, in their rightness and in their wrongness, has initiated important debates. Got me to move beyond the traditional thinking about labor earnings inequality to better appreciate the role of capital income, including inherited wealth, in the large increase in inequality in recent decades. Not the last word, especially on policy prescriptions, but will help get us closer to the understanding and ideas that we need.

Henry Kissinger draws on his deep experience to offer a profound meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder. He reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism.

Henry Kissinger draws on his deep experience to offer a profound meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder. He reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism.

At a time when the world has little or no order, Henry Kissinger’s “World Order” is indispensable reading. Informed by a long view of centuries of history, the author demonstrates why our diplomacy must be rooted in a genuine engagement between cultures, rigorous pragmatism and, yes, realpolitik. Henry makes clear the dangers of ambivalence in the face of the apparent landscape of disorder before us, and reminds us of the only path forward: If we are to defend our principles, we must set out to prove them.

What Lawrence Summers says

A profound meditation on the global system we need but may not have.

What Jeffrey Sachs says

Kissinger’s valuable reflections on geopolitics and the balance of power after a lifetime of research and experience.